Anarchy, Burning(ONC2022 Entry)

Part 15- Malcolm

"Explain it to me again."

"They stripped the cops of their gear and then she tore their minds open one by one. General Argon is looking for people she's calling The Heaven Sent and she wants them badly." Other Malcolm pauses and studies the balls of fire floating above them. "We have to go right. After they were brain dead, her forces dispersed."

"How did we end up in the sewer?"

Other Malcolm looks around at the dank and filthy walls illuminated by her magic. The place stinks of sewage and human waste, but so far there are no signs of demons. They've been traveling underground for nearly three hours, taking tunnels and side tunnels and doubling back when the tunnels become impassable. If not for a basic direction spell they would have been lost.

"Can't a girl keep her secrets?" Other Malcolm tries to figure out the best way to explain she'd tossed their bodies down a manhole one by one.

"What?" Malcolm shouts.

"Is no one else disturbed by this man talking to himself?" Harrison asks. He stops and leans against the tunnel wall. "Fuck!"

Shaniqua shakes her head as he struggles to get the muck off his hand. "Are you sure we're heading the right way?"

"We want to go north. The flames point north."

"Well we can't stay down here the entire trip," Dyson says, adjusting his hold on Mateo. "We need somewhere clean to redress his wounds and a bit of fresh air to clear our lungs."

"Yeah, Jefe. Breathing this shit can't be good." Even by the light of the fire, Meteo looked pale.

"They're right." Malcolm tries to look over the team, but he finds it impossible to move their body without his counterpart's permission.

Other Malcolm finds a little too much joy in this. Since she'd awakened tied to the body of a toddler, she's been a prisoner, only allowed to move and stretch at his leisure. It feels good to be at the helm.

She looks over Reece Dyson and wonders what it would feel like to move and stretch his body. Malcolm's discomfort feels like a side note or afterthought. It's sobering to realize how attentive Malcolm must have to be in order to feel and respond to her when she's not in charge. She had no idea.

"Looks like I'm not too old to learn new tricks." She smirks as she catches Dyson checking them out. "Either way, I feel like we might have made a friend."

"I need a break," Mateo says, slumping against Dyson.

"I... I'm hungry," Hawk says.

"Don't worry, handsome. We'll get you something to eat as soon as we get out of here."

"The sooner the better," Malcolm adds.

Other Malcolm relaxes her hold and gives him control of their body. Their posture shifts as he scans the rest of their party. Mateo and Hawk need a break, and Harrison is a mess no matter how much he tries to hide it. Dyson is physically fine and, even with his diminished light reserves, he is the best support Malcolm has. Him and Shaniqua have the best understanding of what they all are up against.

Malcolm notices the woman at the rear of the group, looking back the way they'd come.

"Shaniqua, is something wrong?"

"Do you hear that?" she asks in a near whisper.

"I don't hear shit," grumbles Harrison

"No," Dyson, Hawk, and Mateo each say.

Malcolm concentrates on their auras and the purple blobs closing in behind them. Demons.

"Incoming!" he shouts, splashing through unidentifiable muck to cover the rear.